Nine years after its original airdate, the two-part "Sex and The City" finale still runs regularly on both the E! network and the Style Channel. I happened to catch it today (who am I kidding, I catch it EVERY TIME) and realized that the progressive messages and outcomes of the four protagonists, particularly Carrie, have more staying power than you may think.

While I'd erase the stagnant memory of the "Sex and The City" movies, particularly the second one, if I could, the show remains a touchstone of female sexuality and one of those rare, unapologetic depictions of thirty-something single women in all their honest, (relatively) mature, smutty glory. Even some dudes like it.

Recall, if you will: Carrie's off in Paris with Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov), having fled New York after seeing what she thought was her bleak future as a still-partying New York singleton in dearly departed socialite Lexi (Kristen Johnson).

But Petrovsky was never right for Carrie. He was a self-important, arrogant douche. She knew it, on some level, but went to Paris with him to make a change. Her friends had all moved on: Charlotte was in the process of adopting a child with Harry, Miranda had moved to Brooklyn with Steve and Brady, and Samantha was in a serious relationship with Smith. Carrie, arguably the most romantic free spirit of the bunch, decided to get out of New York in no small part to get away from the masochistic grind that Mr. Big had been putting her through for the last six years. "I can stay here, and write about my life, or I can go to Paris and live my life!" she yells at Miranda.

What single girl among us hasn't been pressured by their friends in relationships to keep doing the same thing that they always have? Keep being the token "single friend" who regales them with nightmarish dating stories and makes them feel better about their own boyfriend? Although Carrie's choice to go to Paris is a mistake, at least it's an active mistake, taken by a woman who was unwilling to sit in front of a computer and wait around for her future anymore. (And who can't relate to that?)

The most obvious parallel here is the season finale of HBO's "Girls," which featured a shirtless Adam making a rom-com-esque run to the aid of Hannah, in the throes of her OCD. "Girls," a show that's given lip service to "Sex and The City" as both an inspiration and a hopelessly archaic archetype of New York City women, actually comes off more regressive than its retro HBO counterpart. Where's the female camraderie between Marnie, Jessa, Shoshannah and Hannah? In this past season, it's nowhere to be found. And while Shoshannah (the show's Charlotte) has emerged as the only nearly-adult woman of the series, Marnie and Hannah's plotlines were ostensibly resolved simply by the acquisition of boyfriends.

Although over the course of six seasons she went through the emotional ringer—yes, she loved a dude who was aloof, even married someone else—at no point during "Sex and The City" did Carrie need to be rescued by a man, even Mr. Big. Her support system was her friends.